Advice or thoughts on SEO?

[bryan267]

Every thing I was going to write is already above me. Use google maps and it promotes you locally and SEO isnt as important unless there is competition.

It took google maps a year to add me, what made things dificult is that they denied this, only I could see me when I was logged in, or when google thought it was me. Use private viewing on a browser to see what customers will see.

SEO is in your meta data, not something you should pay monthly for, plenty of companies can redesign a site with SEO built in for just a few £100. Yes google likes you more if you update your content from time to time. Also make your web point to your facebook advert and visa versa, the more genuine connections you have the better.

To ensure google sees you early use google console to crawl your site.

 

[Stevekane]

My sons one man ladies hairdressers shop has really boosted business by haveing and I think maintaining with daily fresh content, a facebook page, I dont fully understand it but from what I gather he pays nothing and is able to post photos and comment of the haircuts, and his customers all comment too, sort of feed off each other, and being an open linked up thing I think their friends also get notified when new things are posted even if they have never been to the site or shop so drawing in more people,,,,I hope what Ive just said is not total balls and Im sure people on here understand it properly, but I think Im basicly right? Its been great for him.

 

[Adam W.]

It's because google bots continuously search the internet for new updates to websites. A newly refreshed website, even if it's just one photograph or an addition to a piece of text or new link gets the bots attention, whereas a stale website is ignored and falls to the bottom of the listings.

It doesn't cost any money, but it requires weekly attention by the site owner to get to and stay at the top of google search engines listings.

 

[Jacob]

Wow - you all really ARE knowledgable about all sorts of things.

Thanks for your help so far, there's a lot here to work through, so if I don't get back to this in 5 mnutes, it isn't because I don't want to - I'm just trying to do you all justice for the information you've shared.
For those that asked - she CAN do online content (A lot of trainers have gone that route now) and has a catalogue of training videos to support that, but she will be specialising in Reactive dogs - so face to face tends to be better I believe.

North of Bristol if anyone needs help

Out of interest, do you use Wordpress for your builds? - or maybe you are a developer of large sites and using code.

I'm just having a play with generate press to see if I can build my own website - but I'm slightly wondering if I should get somebody to do it for me.

Code for simple sites is easy W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
There are free versions of various html text editors - BBedit best known Bare Bones Software | BBEdit 13
You can do it without any programme at all, just in plain text. Once you've got the HTML idea everything follows.
It gives you control and also make you keep it simple instead of frantically over designing, like a lot of sites.

 

[RobinBHM]

sons one man ladies

I had to think about that

 

[MARK.B.]

Spend a few bob on getting some quality flyers/leaflets printed up,some legwork involved in distributing them but i believe you can still hire small children to do some of that .

 

[Essex Barn Workshop]

For a quick bit of one-time seo, look at the web site fiverr.com

https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?...rywhere&search-autocomplete-original-term=seo
It used to be people around the world who would do a service for $5 (as an example, I had a web site name written in sand on a caribbean beach at sunset and was sent the photograph for $5)
Now it is more freelancers in India etc offering services such as seo for relatively small amounts. I had an entire website built, multi-page with a shop front, for under £200.

 

[Just4Fun]

A few years ago someone I know set up a sort of kennels, for which I did a web site (for free). The unusual aspect of the business is that she targeted sick dogs on the basis that most kennels will not accept a sick dog so it was hard for these owners to get a holiday or take a business trip. The web site was simple, little more than a vanity site with space for reviews & comments and a booking enquiry form.

Anyway, the conclusion from that experience is that word-of-mouth was the best advertising. People traveled long distances to use her services, and all were persuaded by personal recommendation rather than my SEO efforts. The site came out on the first page of searches for kennels in her town, but this did not bring in much business. When it comes to taking care of their pets most people prefer suggestions from someone they know.

With this in mind I think the advice already given about offline local advertising & contacts is spot on, and you can target that advertising directly at potential customers. A web site is almost irrelevant.

 

[Spectric]

Thinking about how I look into purchasing services or goods, I often go straight to page two or three on an online search because you know the first pages are all there for the wrong reasons. I would think that as your business is one to one, people are not going to be sending you dogs for grooming from all over then you need to grow your local reputation and let word of mouth bring you more business. You may benefit from local flyers and adverts in local papers more than online, your customer base is not Uk wide.

 

[MarkAW]

Out of interest, do you use Wordpress for your builds? - or maybe you are a developer of large sites and using code.

I'm just having a play with generate press to see if I can build my own website - but I'm slightly wondering if I should get somebody to do it for me.

I build sites,or more accurately web apps for large businesses. Mostly the behind the scenes stuff.

 

[artie]

He's my tuppence worth. BTW I haven't read the previous answers so if it's been said before I apologise for the 30 secs of your life you won't get back.

I had a website which I had to get rid of., people just would not take time to read it, they just kept sending stupid questions from the other end of the country which I couldn't service and wanting me to deliver across water for local rates.

Nowadays I get more work than I can do, from facebook and a free ad on google. I come up top if anyone searches in this area, which is all I want.

I'm assuming there won't be hundreds of dog trainers within 20 - 30 miles of you, so with a little effort your wife could be well up there.

 

[Beanwood]

Thank you all for yor replies.

Everyone has made really valid points - and we're literally going to go through each one to see how we can incorporate/adapt them.

I really like the quick and simple ones - such as naming photos rather than using the original JPG name, and she has been making frequent updates over the last two days to incorporate such things. I also greatly appreciate the private offers of help from several of you.

You've mentioned sites I've never heard of before (Yelp for example) so busy sorting out those, and as if an omen, an A5 booklet dropped through the door today advertising local trades and businesses - so I'll check out the cost for more traditional channels as well.

As a small update, I'm pleased to say she started appearing on Google searches late last night.

I'm keen to get this sorted now, so I can get back to woodworking!!

 

[artie]

as if an omen, an A5 booklet dropped through the door today advertising local trades and businesses - so I'll check out the cost for more traditional channels as well.

Reminds me of something I did back in '87
I started my first business on a shoestring, so I contacted a half dozen local unrelated businesses and asked if they would be interested in advertising through me at x cost. They all took up the offer and I got mine free for organising the whole thing.

 

[Stevekane]

Just remember Yellow Pages before spending money on advertiseing booklets,,when they drop through my letterbox they just go straight into the recycle sack,,,maybe some really old ladies look at them but all the oap,s
I know still use the internet!

 

[artie]

I haven' seen a yellow pages since at least 3 years.
Before that they all seemed to get left in the same puddle by the gate.

 

[ian33a]

When we ran our own business we were encouraged to use a variety of advertising methods and so adopted, among many, printed newspaper, Yellow pages, Digital Advertising, A5 magazines and Facebook. I tracked lead source for every quote that I did and so was able to build up a picture of which leads became work and how much work we got from them and how profitable the leads, ultimately, were.

By far the biggest cost ones were printed newspaper and Yellow Pages and, interestingly, they were also the poorest yielding sources both in terms of lead numbers and ultimate sales revenue. Ten years ago, people read newspapers and went to Yellow Pages. It's easy to think that older people still do. In reality, even older people don't do that any more and younger people never have. Just look at how thick Yellow pages was and now is.

As I mentioned in a previous post, A5 magazines worked for us but it required refreshment every now and again - be it by changing the advert or by selecting a different publication in a slightly different area to generate fresh interest. Supplementing the A5 with an active Facebook page reaffirmed that the business was genuine and interested in engaging with the public - especially if the communication was two way.

Another thing to seriously consider is the target demographic. Think about the clients you want to attract and how you want to hook them. Perhaps it is digitally and perhaps it is not. Explore the lower cost advertising channels first and see what works and don't be afraid to change the approach if something doesn't. There is no sense in spending money when you don't need to.

 

[Anto188]

Websites cost, social media doesn't. All the young 'uns use instagram, so do I now.

Nextdoor was mentioned earlier, great idea, get on there first, it's great for local business.

 

[Adam W.]

The parish mag is always a good option. I took a quarter page add out and was inundated with work and I was quite surprised how effective it was for such little outlay.

 

[Jacob]

The parish mag is always a good option. I took a quarter page add out and was inundated with work and I was quite surprised how effective it was for such little outlay.

The saying is that only 5% of advertising works but you don't know which 5%. so you have to try all options!
I was briefly paying quite a lot at the start (sash windows period joinery etc) for magazine ads but the best/biggest job came from a free ad in a local paper. It was spotted by someone who was local but happened to have inherited a very large house in the west of Ireland.

 

[glenfield2]

Most villages have their own Facebook ‘Village Group’ and generally these allow local businesses to promote themselves. You should get likes and shares and comments from other users.